This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the presently described embodiments. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In order to meet consumer and industrial demand for natural resources, companies often invest significant amounts of time and money in finding and extracting oil, natural gas, and other subterranean resources from the earth. Particularly, once a desired subterranean resource such as oil or natural gas is discovered, drilling and production systems are often employed to access and extract the resource. These systems may be located onshore or offshore depending on the location of a desired resource. Further, such systems generally include a wellhead assembly mounted on a well through which the resource is accessed or extracted. These wellhead assemblies may include a wide variety of components, such as various casings, valves, hangers, pumps, fluid conduits, and the like, that facilitate drilling or production operations.
Drilling fluid (often a drilling mud) is used within wells for various reasons, such as to inhibit flow of formation fluids into the wells, to clean and cool drill bits, and to remove wellbore cuttings. Drilling mud can be circulated through a well by pumping the drilling mud from a mud pit at the surface down into a well through a drill string. The drilling mud can exit the drill string at the bottom of the well and then return up the well through the annular space between the drill string and the well walls. To inhibit the flow of formation fluids into the wells, the wells can be maintained in an overbalanced state in which the weight of the drilling mud applies a greater pressure on the bottom of the well than the pressure of the formation fluids in the subsurface rocks. Drilling fluids engineers monitor and regulate the properties of the drilling mud or other drilling fluids, but in some instances the drilling mud or other fluids may be insufficient to prevent formation fluid from flowing into the well (known as a “kick”).